Submitted by Jacob Leech on
Full Recap and Results Below:
Anthony West has taken a nail biting and romantic victory for the Moto2 race at Assen, it was the Australian's second Grand Prix win after taking his first victory eleven years ago at the very same track. After starting from 23rd on the grid the Speed Up rider carved through the field on the opening laps and eventually held of a stern last ditch challenge from Maverick Vinales and Mika Kallio to achieve a highly popular result. The race was initially delayed by twenty minutes when conditions transformed from lovely sunshine to torrential rain and hail as the teams prepared on the grid. The track began to dry out as the field lined up for the second time and riders had to make the decision to run on wet tyres or gamble on slicks.
More heavy rain fell as the race started and the riders that chose slicks were left to rue their decision as many of them had to pit and change to wets. As the race progressed the track began to dry out considerably and the wet weather tyres began to complain, slip and slide. Johann Zarco finished in fourth place some seven seconds behind the leaders but ahead of Alex DeAngelis and Tom Luthi. Julian Simon ended the race in seventh ahead of Championship leader Tito Rabat who rode a measured race to accumulate points and stay out of trouble. Lorenzo Baldassarri and Hafizh Syahrin rounded out the top ten.
British Moto2 rookie Sam Lowes unfortunately crashed on lap nine whilst challenging Simone Corsi for the race win. Corsi then amazingly threw away a comfortable ten second advantage a couple of laps later, handing the lead to West. Luis Salom crashed out of third place with four laps remaining as West and Vinales ramped up the pace and tested the limits of grip.
Full Results:
| Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
| 1 | 25 | 95 | Anthony WEST | Speed Up | 46'02.089 |
| 2 | 20 | 40 | Maverick VIÑALES | Kalex | 0.318 |
| 3 | 16 | 36 | Mika KALLIO | Kalex | 0.743 |
| 4 | 13 | 5 | Johann ZARCO | Caterham Suter | 7.300 |
| 5 | 11 | 15 | Alex DE ANGELIS | Suter | 11.253 |
| 6 | 10 | 12 | Thomas LUTHI | Suter | 14.932 |
| 7 | 9 | 60 | Julian SIMON | Kalex | 17.658 |
| 8 | 8 | 53 | Esteve RABAT | Kalex | 20.177 |
| 9 | 7 | 7 | Lorenzo BALDASSARRI | Suter | 25.260 |
| 10 | 6 | 55 | Hafizh SYAHRIN | Kalex | 50.761 |
| 11 | 5 | 8 | Gino REA | Suter | 51.526 |
| 12 | 4 | 23 | Marcel SCHROTTER | Tech 3 | 51.692 |
| 13 | 3 | 3 | Simone CORSI | Kalex | 57.108 |
| 14 | 2 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Kalex | +1'06.613 |
| 15 | 1 | 39 | Luis SALOM | Kalex | +1'15.500 |
| 16 | 88 | Ricard CARDUS | Tech 3 | +1'17.239 | |
| 17 | 54 | Mattia PASINI | Kalex | +1'17.528 | |
| 18 | 2 | Josh HERRIN | Caterham Suter | +1'42.178 | |
| 19 | 97 | Roman RAMOS | Speed Up | +1'48.124 | |
| 20 | 45 | Tetsuta NAGASHIMA | TSR | 1 Lap | |
| 21 | 77 | Dominique AEGERTER | Suter | 1 Lap | |
| 22 | 18 | Nicolas TEROL | Suter | 1 Lap | |
| 23 | 94 | Jonas FOLGER | Kalex | 2 Laps | |
| 24 | 21 | Franco MORBIDELLI | Kalex | 2 Laps | |
| 25 | 19 | Xavier SIMEON | Suter | 2 Laps | |
| 26 | 81 | Jordi TORRES | Suter | 2 Laps | |
| 27 | 70 | Robin MULHAUSER | Suter | 2 Laps | |
| 28 | 96 | Louis ROSSI | Kalex | 3 Laps | |
| 29 | 10 | Thitipong WAROKORN | Kalex | 4 Laps | |
| Not Classified | |||||
| 11 | Sandro CORTESE | Kalex | 6 Laps | ||
| 4 | Randy KRUMMENACHER | Suter | 12 Laps | ||
| 22 | Sam LOWES | Speed Up | 16 Laps | ||
| 49 | Axel PONS | Kalex | 17 Laps | ||
| 25 | Azlan SHAH | Kalex | 21 Laps | ||
Comments
Why and How?
I would love someone to explain Anthony West to me.
How can a rider be so consistently fast in wet or partially wet conditions but not be able to translate the bike control and feel that bad conditions require into the same speed in the dry?
I know his bikes have never been top shelf and there have been suggestions that his bike set up skills are not the best but I still don't get it.
Fantastic result, big enigma to me.
Enigma is right
I'm guessing that if anyone were to know the answer to that, it would be Westy himself. If that were true, he'd be doing his level best to fix it, so one can only assume even he doesn't understand why, or it's totally beyond his control...
Nevertheless, awesome result. Great job, Westy.
It really does show his level
It really does show his level of skil in the wet. I would be interested to see his lap times in the dry vs wet at the same circuit and I am guessing that he goes pretty much the same pace in wet and dry taking into account different tyre performance. He just doesn't seem to worry about the wet as much as many others.
How and Why?
I think you have stated some of the reasons in your second sentence - "I know his bikes have never been top shelf ... ".
You can ride around a poor (er) bike for a number of laps but it gets progressively harder to hold out the better bikes as tyre wear progresses. If you look at Ant West's qualifying and race patterns it is there to see - early fast times that gradually get overtaken in Qualifying, and amazing first 2 - 3 laps on cold tyres in races raising from mid 20's grid positions to top 10's then slowly drifting back as the tyres on his bike go off.
All the riders in this race were struggling with rubber that was shot and so were unable to use their better bikes - seeing Aegerter shoot away on a rear slick with a huge grip advantage was eye opening ... once he got out of the way that is lol!!
He showed in MotoGp on the widow maker Kawasaki that he has a heap of talent, and when Warren Willing was running his bike set up late 2012 he had some very good results. So ... bike or set up? A fair bit of both I think.
Insufficient Muscatpete
I understand your point and agree in part but machine disadvantage simply cannot explain it all. For starters if it did, he would easily out perform his team mates. A quick search through MotoGP.com shows this is not the situation so there must be more to it than that.
In part, I think he is simply less troubled by the rain- something that immediately puts three quarters of the field on the back foot thus with his bravery he has a double boost.
Also, I think manicmoose hit the nail on the head: the person most likely to know is Westy and if he did know he would know how to address it. It is clear from interviews he does not so cannot.
The Rea Thing
Nobody's mentioned Gino Rea's superb ride, so I will. He's another rider that's very good in the wet. Often, as with Westy, those conditions repay smoothness and patience and iron out the differences in bike setup, kit and budget.
Top work, that man. More of the same, please.
Expectations for an Aussie on the podium
Yes, I had expectations for an Aussie to appear on the podium yesterday, just didn't expect for it to be Ant West........
Miller binned it going too hard too early in Moto3, and Westy continued to mark his dominance when the field is thrust onto treaded tyres. Good on him, it was a brave ride.